Things to Do in San Francisco

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“If you're alive, you can't be bored in San Francisco. If you're not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.” William Saroyan

San Francisco is filled with things and places on everyone’s “I’ve always wanted to see that” list: The Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the Presidio, and Fisherman’s Wharf, just to name few. You can’t come to San Francisco without experiencing the sights of this unique and breathtaking city—and here are websites to help you get started planning your excursions.

General Websites

City and County of San Francisco Websitehttp://www.sfgov.org/index.aspThe Visitors page of this website has links to a Calendar of Events, a California Visitors Guide, major attractions, and services.

Bay Area Chamber of Commercehttp://www.visitsfbayarea.com/The Bay Area Chamber of Commerce website includes information on shopping, tours, entertainment, and attractions throughout the Bay area, not just San Francisco. You’ll find links to web pages specific to San Francisco neighborhoods, including Chinatown, Civic Center and Van Ness, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Ferry Building, Golden Gate Park, Haight-Ashbury, Japantown and Fillmore, Marina and the Presidio, Mission District, Nob Hill, North Beach, San Francisco Airport, SOMA (South of Market) and Convention Center, and Union Square.

Moscone Visitors Centerhttp://www.mosconevisitor.com/This website provides valuable information about the site of the Annual Meeting and has information on attractions, restaurants, shopping, excursions, and more.

Museums

The California Academy of Sciences is a world-class scientific and cultural institution. The Academy recently opened a new facility in Golden Gate Park, a 400,000 square foot structure that houses an aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum, and a four-story rainforest.

The Asian Art Museum–Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture is one of San Francisco's premier arts institutions and home to a world-renowned collection of more than 18,000 Asian Art treasures spanning 6,000 years of history.

Comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is the largest public arts institution in the City of San Francisco and one of the largest art museums in the United States.

Thede Young Museum, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, is the nation’s sixth most visited art museum. It showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries; international textile arts and costumes; art from the Americas, the Pacific and Africa; and photography

TheLegion of Honor displays a collection spanning more than 4,000 years of ancient and European art and houses the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in a neoclassical building overlooking Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Founded in 1935, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) was the first museum on the West Coast devoted to modern and contemporary art. SFMOMA welcomes more than 650,000 visitors annually, and more than 46,000 students visit each year. Since opening its South of Market building in 1995, SFMOMA has added more than 13,000 works to its collections, 95 percent of which were donated, doubling its holdings to 26,000 works.

Parks/Attractions

A project of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, the Barbary Coast Trail® is a San Francisco walking tour that connects the City’s most important historic sites, drawing you into a world of gold seekers and railroad barons, writers and visionaries, shanghiers and silver kings. A series of bronze medallions and arrows embedded in the sidewalk connect the Barbary Coast Trail’s historic sites. Along a 3.8-mile path (mostly flat or gently sloping), the trail weaves its way through Downtown, Union Square, Chinatown, Portsmouth Square, Jackson Square Historic District, Old Barbary Coast, Beat San Francisco, North Beach, Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower, Fishermans Wharf, San Francisco Martime Historical National Park, Ghirardelli Square, and Nob Hill.

This page from the Fisherman’s Wharf Merchants Association provides a range of information for visitors to Fisherman’s Wharf, including lodging, restaurants, shopping, tours, services, and attractions, transportation, and more.

The site, maintained by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District, offers a wealth of information about this icon of the American landscape, including history, a live webcam and multimedia gallery, maps, and Ferry information.

The Presidio is an urban national park that celebrates history, environment, and community, and that honors the Presidio's legacy of service. It is located at the Golden Gate, where the Pacific Ocean meets San Francisco Bay. The land was in constant use as a military post for two centuries, first for Spain, then for a newly independent Mexico, and finally for the United States. Today, it is both a distinctive national park site within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and a National Historic Landmark District.